Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The nation continues to mourn the lives of six innocent individuals - three children, three staff members - who were killed Monday at a private Presbyterian school in Nashville, Tennessee, at the hands of a gunman who shot their way into the school.
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The shooter, Audrey Hale, entered the school by shooting out the glass of one of the entrance ways and then proceeded to sweep through the campus.
Police received a call about the active shooter at The Covenant School at around 10:15 a.m. CT, and about 15 minutes after that call to police, the shooter was shot dead by police that quickly entered the school.
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The actions taken by Metropolitan Nashville Police Officers who responded to the active shooter call are being hailed as helping save the lives of many other children and staff members of the school.
"They absolutely did an excellent job quickly responding to the situation, and then going right in, locating the shooter and stopping that threat," said Jeff Rinaldo, former Buffalo Police Captain and current partner of Vista Security Group. "It's very obvious, based on the body camera video that was released [Tuesday] as well as some other surveillance video, the number of fatalities in this case could have been a lot higher."
"That's what we would hope they would have done all along," added Brian DalPorto, former Chief of Police in Niagara Falls and current Director of Security for the Niagara Falls City School District. "Through the years, certainly the past 20 years now since Columbine, police departments across the country have changed their strategy to do exactly what we've seen so far from Nashville. So far, it looks like an excellent job."
As a former Chief of Police in Western New York, DalPorto has all the confidence in the world that other law enforcement agencies in Western New York are trained and equipped to handle a similar type of situation to occur not just in a school, but any other public building.
"We train enough in Western New York should that situation come up, we've planned and trained for it, so I have every confidence in the world, in all our police departments in Western New York they would handle it appropriately. But it looks like, from all indications, Nashville did a stand up job."
When further examining the school's security footage and the body camera footage of police officers responding to the call, Rinaldo takes notice of the school in Nashville not appearing to have a security officer on the premises.
While every circumstance may be different when it comes to the unfortunate nature of school shootings across the country, both Rinaldo and DalPorto says that lessons can be learned from these instances, when it comes to better securing a school.
"The video clearly shows how they were able to gain entry into the building, and the lessons learned is these schools need to do the best they can to secure those entrance and exit points so as to, if not, totally stop, at least slow down a perpetrator's attempt to enter that property, giving police officers more time to respond," Rinaldo said.
DalPorto says it is an ongoing process when it comes to safety and security in schools with every single incident. He also points out it is important to not ignore any indicators that could have been previously found that could prevent incidents like this from ever happening.
"Usually down the road, we learn that someone maybe thought something, or there was some indication and they didn't act on it, or someone didn't act on the information that we had. I think we learn from all of these that if you see something to say something, report it so things can get addressed before they get out of hand," DalPorto said. "Here in Western New York, we're very lucky that we have two Crime Analysis Centers in Niagara County and Erie County that watch these types of threats. They work with us at the school district, as well as law enforcement and our federal partners, to mitigate these situations and to stop threats before they turn into any type of reality. But should they turn into reality, our districts and police departments train together, work together, and it's an ongoing process."
DalPorto adds a big takeaway from any incident that takes place locally or nationally is we can never stop learning.
"The minute we think we have things under control, someone changes the rules of engagement. We really have to stay vigilant, keep our training up, learn from every incident and keep progressing, and keep our schools, and really everywhere the public goes safe," he said.
Even from a school administrative standpoint, Niagara Falls City Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie says they are learning from all that takes place before, during and after a school shooting takes place in other areas of the country.
"I think what was a learning point for us was to have that video come out so close to the time when the shooting happened," said Laurrie on Tuesday. "I did receive calls today with respect to glass and bulletproof and film glass. I know as we redo our vestibules coming up starting this summer, we're going to make sure that we have glass that is bulletproof. All that does is it buys time for response teams to get to the school. Fortunately, we have four school resource officers in our schools, in our high school and middle schools, and one that rotates through our elementary schools. And our police response time is very quick. In addition to that, a week from today, we're doing an active shooter drill at Niagara Falls High School. So it just reinforces that drilling, you can never have too much security."
When breaking down all that took place in Nashville with the shooter at The Covenant School, it certainly makes security leaders like Rinaldo and DalPorto take a deep dive into the way they protect the lives and safety of students and staff in schools.
"I think over the last 5-10 years, you've seen a lot of money invested by various school districts in, what they call, 'hardening the target'. Putting reinforced glass, putting reinforced doorways, creating more of a complicated system to get into a school versus a single-pane glass door that you could throw a rock at and enter," Rinaldo explained. "I think a lot of these locations will be having conversations now, and probably expediting plans to reinforce those entryways, if they have not done so already."
"Our big thing is keep the doors locked, keep the windows shut, limit access to schools, which are all appropriate factors in keeping your school safe. We saw the other day, a door is only good as a door can possibly be, and someone can breach a door and shoot through a door," DalPorto added. "But I think it lets us think about technology moving forward. How can we bulletproof those glass doors and windows?
"There's bullet-resistant film that we could have used, and these are all 'Monday Morning Quarterback' for sure, but these are the takeaways that we have to take away from incidents like this and learn from to move forward."
Laurrie says he's really pleased with the security measures that are already in place or in the works at Niagara Falls. He feels it's extremely important that through tragedy, one is able to learn and hope that nothing like this ever happen again.
"We saw the importance of that glass. Would it have stopped that deranged person from getting into the school? No, but it was valuable seconds that may have made that person stop and have a harder pathway to get in. And in these kinds of situations, God forbid, seconds are incredibly valuable," Laurrie said. "The fact that the doors were all secured, and that we've taken so many efforts to make sure that our doors are always locked down and we're checking them, and now we're putting alarms on all 224 of our other doors, I think it just reinforces that we can do as much as we can.
"Having armed Niagara Falls police in our middle schools and high school, and around our elementary schools is a great piece of solace, for me. But having ears and eyes, and listening and talking is never replaced by the hardening techniques. I'm not sure if there were antecedent circumstances that came up with this individual that could have been prevented, but that's also a big security measure."
DalPorto and Rinaldo both feel that school districts and local municipalities need to put school security and safety on an equal playing level as the academics and curriculum to ensure an incident like a school shooting can be better prevented. And despite some schools and municipalities thinking maybe an incident such as this could never happen to them, it continues to be proven time-and-time again it can happen to anybody.
While security and safety will be looked at heavily for some school districts going forward, there certainly will be some concerns when it comes to cost. With the addition of enhanced security measures or the addition of more security guards and school resource officers (SROs), it may drive budget costs up quite a bit.
However, the thought process is similar between both Rinaldo and DalPorto: The potential cost of lives being lost in a school shooting should heavily outweigh any cost to districts to better ensure the safety of students and staff.
"I think the same way that schools budget for teachers, gym teachers, lunch monitors, janitors, secretaries and things of that nature, I think planning for having a professional security officer or officers - depending on the size of the school or the campus - just has to become part of their annual budget planning," Rinaldo said. "Almost as a requirement so that they could have the proper personnel and resources available to hopefully prevent one of these tragedies from occurring, let alone respond to it, if it should occur."
DalPorto goes as far as saying school security has to take a front seat when it comes to budgeting for school districts in today's day and age.
"It's more than just maybe arming a teacher or having security, these things take an ongoing effort and ongoing commitment, because security - whether they're armed or unarmed, school resource officers - they have to maintain their training, they have to maintain their professionalism," he said. "It's really an ongoing process, and these systems have to really be implemented everywhere to keep our kids safe, and that's the reality we live in today. We wish maybe it wasn't like that, but unfortunately, we saw [Monday], the times are dictating that's just a cost we're going to have to pay for."
As for Laurrie, he understands districts have to be somewhat realistic when it comes to shoring up security.
"We can't have 20 armed guards at every school and every door, so there is a matter of reasonability," he said. "The only other thing I'd say about this is to, again, unfortunate school shooting - 13 since the beginning of the school year - we have to be aware everywhere we go, unfortunately. Whether it's the supermarket - as we know so tragically well - the movie, theater, etc., it's just a real unfortunate way we have to live."
While safety in schools are taking precedence in many districts across the country, there could be some worry that schools are becoming more of a prison-like environment with the enhanced security measures. That includes the addition of more security officers, as well as the enhanced technologies with doors, windows, metal detectors, etc.
There is a fine line between students feeling safe and secure in school, while also being provided a good learning, academic environment. DalPorto believes it's a discussion that needs to be had between law enforcement, security experts, school districts and parent groups.
"I do think districts - they are catching on, certainly in Niagara Falls and other districts around Western New York, but security, in terms of organizing security, can't be an additional duty, an afterthought after the day," he said. "Teachers do a great job teaching, principals do a great job administering, the maintenance folks do a great job maintaining our buildings, but at the end of the day, I think districts need someone that is thinking about security 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Training people, training staff, training students, and implementing procedures, whether it's the physical plan and the technology that exists, or the actual interior security once something's inside of the building and conducting drills. Again, security really cannot take a backseat. It has to be part and parcel with the academics, and I think we'd all be better served if that were the case."
While Laurrie acknowledges these types of conversations likely would have never been had 20 years ago, he says now it would be irresponsible not to have all the hardened security measures that now help put people's minds at ease.
"I think to make it not feel prison-like, you've got to work on the soft side and you got to talk. Talk and communicate and listen, and keep your ears and eyes open. And have those trauma-informed responses to kids to make sure that they know that this is for their safety, this is what we have to do in 2023," Laurrie said. "We wish we didn't, but it's terribly irresponsible not to do this.
"I think the saddest part of it is the kids that are coming through, unfortunately, don't know it any other way. It's not the school that I went to, and they don't know any other way. I worry they're desensitized to this kind of approach. I never wanted this to be the way school was, and 39 years ago when I started, this isn't how it was. But to not do this would be irresponsible, and I think it's counterbalanced by the conversations that we have with kids."